Audio playback devices, including portable MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) players, smart phones and other portable devices capable of audio playback, are commonly used as entertainment devices for listening to music or other audio or audio/visual data. Audio output device, such as speakers or headphones, are connected to the audio playback device and receive an analog audio signal from the audio playback device. The audio playback device generally includes controls for controlling the playback of the audio, which may include play/pause/stop, skip forward, skip backward, volume up and volume down. It will be apparent that other controls may also be included, or various controls of those listed omitted from particular audio playback devices.
With the increasing miniaturization of audio playback devices, there has become less room for the location of controls on the device itself. One option for locating the controls of the audio playback device is to include them on a remote that is separate from the audio playback device. This can include attaching a remote control unit having playback controls to the headphones or other audio output device connected to the audio playback device. The remote may communicate with the audio playback device over specialized pins or connections; however, this requires an additional physical connector, which may be undesirable or difficult to locate within an audio playback device. Wireless communication between the remote and the audio playback device is also possible; however, this results in greater power consumption for the audio playback device and requires a battery for the remote.